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bessman
Asked: 2013-09-07 12:00:57 +0800 CST

Where are MTP mounted devices located in the filesystem?

  • 772

I have an Android phone that connects with my computer via MTP. This works fine; I can see and transfer files with Nautilus. However, I often want to use the terminal to move large numbers of files, and I cannot seem to find the device anywhere in the filesystem tree. Nautilus reports the location as mtp://[usb:003,007]/, but it's not under /media or /mnt.

Does anyone know where it is?

mtp

13 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    As you have already found out, the mountpoints are in /run/user/$USER/gvfs/ (or /var/run/user/$UID/gvfs) and are named after the protocol, connection type and address they use. Which makes things more difficult, because the connection address may change every time you replug the device, even if it is the same port. If you have the same device twice it gets even worse.

    You can use lsusb to display all connected USB devices from terminal:

    $ lsusb | grep Google   # Note: This is a Nexus 4, change accordingly
Bus 002 Device 025: ID 18d1:4ee2 Google Inc.

    As you have noticed Nautilus also gives this information via tool tip. You will find the encoded form of e.g. mtp://[usb:002,025] in /run/user/$USER/gvfs (or /var/run/user/$UID/gvfs) as mtp:host=%5Busb%3A002%2C025%5D

    Asker's edit: This seems to require a newer version of libmtp and/or gvfs than is available per default in 13.04. Run sudo add-apt-repository ppa:langdalepl/gvfs-mtp and update before doing anything else.

    Edit: PPA not needed anymore in saucy/13.10 and newer, filenames are listed in terminal as they are in Nautilus.

    Edit 2016-01-11: I removed the script that was previously included in this answer due to lack of time for maintenance and improvements. You can still find it in the revision history.

    • 213

  2. My Nexus device's memory can be accessed at:

    /run/user/$UID/gvfs/mtp*

    So if your $UID is 1000, you may find it by either doing

    $ cd /run/user/$UID/gvfs/mtp*

    or (for the exact location in an example assuming your UID is 1000),

    $ cd /run/user/1000/gvfs/mtp\:host=%5Busb%3A001%2C006%5D/
    • 114

  3. MTP mounted device usually can be found in : /run/user/1000/gvfs/

    for eg if your Nautilus address bar shows mtp://[usb:001,006]/, then you can access by:

    /run/user/1000/gvfs/mtp\:host=%5Busb%3A001%2C006%5D/

    now on terminal you can copy files or folders:

    • cd into folder -> cd /run/user/1000/gvfs/mtp\:host=%5Busb%3A001%2C006%5D/
    • then copy required folders to current directory -> cp -r ~/videos/ .
    • 28

  4. I got an LG2 phone and I am running Xubuntu 15.10.

    This is how I mounted the device to mnt directory in under my user.

    1. First make sure you have the following packages installed in your system.

      sudo apt-get install jmtpfs mtp-tools

    2. Connect your phone as MTP device and type the following command in your terminal.

      mtp-detect

    3. Uncomment user_allow_other in file /etc/fuse.conf.

    4. Create a directory mnt in your home directory.

      mkdir mnt

    5. Mount the device.

      jmtpfs ~/mnt

    6. Thats it. Now your device is mounted under the mnt directory created in step 4.

    Note: There may be some steps that are unnecessary. But following the above steps worked for me.

    Reference: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MTP

    • 18

  5. This is working with:

    • Linux Mint 17.3
    • Samsung Galaxy S5

    Try this:

    1. apt-get install mtpfs
    2. apt-get install mtp-tools
      • # yes could be one line (this is optional)
    3. sudo mkdir -p /media/mtp/phone
    4. sudo chmod 775 /media/mtp/phone
      • # Personally I'd restrict permissions to NO-eXecute
      • # At this point I'm not sure what is enough to mount.
    5. Unplug the phone micro-USB and plug-in, then...
    6. sudo mtpfs -o allow_other /media/mtp/phone
    7. ls -lt /media/mtp/phone

    Output: 

     total 0
 drwxrwxrwx 2 will will 0 Jan  1  1970 Card
 drwxrwxrwx 2 will will 0 Jan  1  1970 Phone
 drwxrwxrwx 2 will will 0 Jan  1  1970 Playlists
    1. ls -lt /media/mtp/phone/Card

    Output:

     total 0
 drwxrwxrwx 2 will will 0 Jan  1  1970 Android
 drwxrwxrwx 2 will will 0 Jan  1  1970 DCIM
 drwxrwxrwx 2 will will 0 Jan  1  1970 LOST.DIR
 drwxrwxrwx 2 will will 0 Jan  1  1970 Music

    Listing access to the SD-card on my Android phone. "Playlists" is a virtual directory called "/Playlists" which contains your playlists as .m3u files. (per man mtpfs)

    That seems to do the trick. Useful commands to remember ...

    • sudo mtpfs -h ... lists the device's options. This seems to only work before you have mounted the device. So check first-off, perhaps.
    • mtp-detect ... shows lots of stuff about the device (part of mtp-tools).

    Also, I think you need the phone/device "on", open the screen-saver if you have one so the device can connect.

    I noticed that my USB-s mount as:

    • /media/will/usbdrive

    So it might make more sense to mount under your username instead of the "mtp" stub. Also, review the post: "Mounting Your MTP Androids SD-card on Ubuntu", it has a few useful suggestions and extras.

    References

    I took my lead from these two posts:

    • 13

  6. Type mount. That will list every active filesystem.

    • 10

  7. I don't know exactly to traverse to MTP location via terminal. However, I found out that we can right click on the Internal storage / SD card and choose option "Open in Terminal". Doing so the location is directly opened in Terminal.

    screenshot

    • 9

  8. This is not a direct answer to the problem, but a solution nonetheless.

    After experiencing inconsistency's with USB connectivity, I bypassed the .gvfs and USB system all together.

    I installed a simple ftp server on the android and voila! Connect to server (either ftp with login or without, depending on how you choose) from Nautilus/nemo/thunar and away you go.

    Syncronisation of folders is handled through OwnCloud and/or BitTorrentSync.

    And the FTP over wireless is way quicker than the USB connection was.

    • 6

  9. MTP is a protocol, much like FTP or SSH. It fetches files when the user asks for it. Thus there is no mounted file system on the computer.

    Use mtpfs in order to make it appear like a mounted file system.

    mtpfs <a_folder_to_mount>

    No need to specify the device. If you have only one device connected, then there is no ambiguity. I have not tested it with multiple devices connected to my computer.

    • 5

  10. enter image description here

    After accessing the correct path as said HERE and other answers, a good idea is to add the invariable path (for example /run/user/1000/gvfs) as a bookmark to the file manager left panel. When phone is disconnected, that folder will be empty.

    I have noticed that there is a difference between the options available for a file accessed in this way and those available for the same file when accessed the "normal" way, by the mtp:// path (clicking "mtp" or the device name/numbers on the left panel): when accessed by /run/user/.../gvfs the file has in context menu ("Open with") all the expected options; these options are limited (reduced to default/vanilla ones) when the file is accessed by mtp://. Also, some programs (e.g. MKVToolNix) cannot access a file by the mtp:// path, but they can by the other one. This aspect may become important is some scenarios, like for example when one needs to create/download a file on the phone, process it through a computer program (e.g. MKVToolNix) and output it on an external device.

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